A fishing cat has allegedly been beaten to death in Shailkupa, Jhenaidah. The incident took place at about 3am on Tuesday night (12 November) in Khandakbaria village of Kancherkol union.

Md Asmaul, a college student in the village, said the fishing cat entered the cowshed of a farmer named Kalu on Monday and killed two goats. When the goats were found dead in the morning, villagers realised the fishing cat had killed them. On Tuesday night it came back and got into a hen house. The household noticed and chased it, and it was caught in a net kept beside the house. Villagers then beat it to death.

Tanmoy Acharya, wildlife and biodiversity conservation officer at the Khulna Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division, said that since the animal had been beaten to death, there was nothing more to be done. "If it had been alive we could have rescued it," he said.

He urged villagers not to kill wildlife.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.